Citadel Announces Campus-Wide Sex Abuse Training

Every student and staff member at The Citadel will receive training in preventing child sex abuse.

The program is in response to claims of sexual assault at the school, including the high-profile case of Louis "Skip" Revile, who is serving 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to molesting 23 boys in the Lowcountry.

In the process of that investigation, a young man claimed he'd been abused by ReVille at a Citadel summer camp in 2002 and that the school was informed of the accusation in 2007. The camp closed in 2006 due to unrelated abuse allegations involving another counselor. 

In the move announced Wednesday, all Citadel employees, cadets and graduate and evening undergraduate students along with members of the Board of Visitors and campus residents will receive training through the Stewards of Children program.

The program will be administered by Darkness to Light, a national nonprofit based in Charleston that teaches adults to recognize and react to signs of child sex abuse.

"The Citadel has the challenge and opportunity to set a new standard within our community," said President Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa in a statement. "This partnership with Darkness to Light demonstrates our commitment to serving as an example to others and making The Citadel a safe place to live, learn, work and visit."

By May 1, 3,650 people who live and work on The Citadel campus trained using the Stewards of Children program. After May 1, annual training will be offered to all new Citadel employees and a program will be developed to continue training new cadets and Graduate College students.

Jolie Logan, D2L President and CEO, welcomed the partnership with The Citadel.

"Recent events have made our community talk more openly about the difficult issue of CSA (child sex abuse)," Logan said. "And today's announcement will keep the dialogue alive, leading to better awareness, education and development of organizational policy to end CSA."